"kakitsubata" 杜若 (かきつばた)
Iris laevigata. 燕子花
The literal meaning of the Chinese characters 燕子花 is
"Child of the Swallow", because the form of the flower looks like a baby swallow starting its first flight.

Some Iris parks feature special bridges. See below for more.Yatsuhashi means "eight bridges." 八橋
It is named for a location on the Azuma River renowned in Japanese literature, where the water branched into eight channels, each with its own bridge. It is also thought that on crooked bridges one can avoid evil spirits that flow in straight lines.Look at them here:http://www.outside-in.com/seiwa-en/structures/zig/zig.html

Kakitsubata on a woodblock print from Kunisada, with a fair lady.http://homepage2.nifty.com/ICHIYUSAI/kisetsu/kakitsubata.htm

.......................................... Yatsuhashi

Iris and the Yatsuhashi bridge are the subject of many folding screens and other works of art.
Here is one from Oogata Koorin (Ogata Korin)
The subject of this work is drawn from the Eight Plank Bridge scene or Yatsuhashi of the Tale of Ise, and yet here both figures and the famous bridge have been eliminated, leaving only a symbolic representation of the theme in the form of a simple stand of iris. This effective handling of the classic theme reveals the painter's uniquw stance as both a decorative painter,and also an artist completely familiar with the essence of Chinese style painting.Photo see below.

The name yatsuhashi comes from an incident in the 10th c.
Ise monogatari 伊勢物語 (Tales of Ise, trans. H. McCullough)
in which the story's protagonist and his companions stop to rest at a famous iris marsh traversed by an eight-planked bridge. In Edo period gardens, especially those built by daimyo (大名庭園 ), yatsuhashi were often built over iris marshes in an obvious reference to Ise monogatari.
A good example is found at Koishikawa Kourakuen 小石川後楽園, Tokyo.http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/y/yatsuhashi1.htm

................. Yatsuhashi as a kimono pattern

Why does Yatsuhashi have such a particular meaning?
A Japanese classical masterpiece, "The tales of Ise" tells us why.
A disappointed nobleman was relegated to a country in the east. On the way to his distant journey, he composed a tanka poem in which he expressed his deep sorrow of being apart far from his beautiful wife back in Kyoto with the motif of Kakitsubata and Yatsuhashi.
He must have longingly recalled her when he saw beautiful flowers of Kakitsubata walking along on Yatsuhashi.
This sad story was much more popular than other stories in "Tales of Ise" and became the base of a Japanese Noh play entitled "Kakitsubata".
One summer night, an ascetic monk, on the way to his journey to the east, met a beautiful Kakitsubata flower fairy. The fairy performed dances for the monk all the night through. The dance was so beautiful and fantastic that he could endure his loneliness.
No matter what is your nationality or how old you are, missing home or people whom you love in a distant land is an universal sentiment, isn't it? This is a great link about stories behind the patterns of Japanese kimono.http://www.yamatoku.jp/classic/topic.asp

Here is a little something special.
A card game with flowers for each month.
The Iris and the Yatsuhashi bridge are also featured.
The cards are divided into the twelve months of the year, incorporating the kachoo fuugetsu (four beauties of nature: flowers, birds, wind, and moon).
Genjuro's Hanafudahttp://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arena/9305/hanafuda.html
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~johnbent/hanahuda/
http://homepage.mac.com/silentdibs/hanafuda/cards.html

In the poem of the Ise Monogatari (see below) the poet has
"thoughts of his wife" in his mind.
(Verb-forms of omou are used in both poems.)
So I choose to translate iris in singular.
The Japanese has a cut after line one.
Line 2 in Japanese does not work as a pivot line
(as the translation from Barnhill might suggest), since lines 2 and 3 belong together.

(BTW, an American friend later confirmed this:
"Your translation is accurate for American English too. 'Iris' is most often expressed in the singular unless the context is, for instance, iris species or stalks of irises. As an iris judge, this is the general parlance."
Thanks, Elaine.)

Your poem at first reading reminded me of my youth when a good friend of mine always seem to tan first in the summer and when we would stand side-by-side at the local swimming pool... we were friends of two colors!> Thank you, dear Gabi san, for bringing a joyful memory.

- quoteYatsuhashi Kengyō 八橋 検校(1614–1685) was a Japanese musician and composer from Kyoto. The name Kengyō is an honorary title given to highly skilled blind musicians.

Yatsuhashi, who was born and died in Japan, was originally a player of the shamisen, but later learned the koto from a musician of the Japanese court. Originally restricted to the court, Yatsuhashi is credited as the first musician to introduce and teach the koto to general audiences. He is thus known as the "Father of Modern Koto."

He changed the limited selection of six pieces to a brand new style of koto music which he called kumi uta. Yatsuhashi changed the Tsukushi goto tunings, which were based on tunings used in gagaku, and with this change a new style of koto was born. He adapted the Hirajoshi scale and the Insen scale for the koto, from the shamisen repertoire.

Yatsuhashi is also credited as the composer of the important koto solo piece Rokudan-no-shirabe (六段の調, Music of Six Steps), although he may not actually have composed it himself.- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !.MY BLOG